This post is part of the 100th Anniversary of World War One Series on this
blog commemorating the anniversaries of certain events during WWI.
"In Flanders Fields the Poppies Blow" |
This day, the Eleventh of November, we remember the final ending of the Great War which began one hundred years ago. After four long years fighting, in France's Compiegne Forest the Allied Nations and Germany signed the Armistice at 11:00 am, thus bringing an end to the First World War - a war that had cost so much was now over. But still, though the guns were now silent, though men ceased to shoot each other, and those who were left returned to their homes, even to this day:
In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.
We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.
Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.
Lieutenant John McCrea, Canadian Army
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We will Remember Them